Soviet Log 87
Grievous Wound Sisters FTW (Premature Sacrifice?) We picked up the action within St. Peter's basilica just outside the chamber where the Vatican's Herald summoning ritual was underway. The first challenge was to get through the magically locked door guarded by Vatican construct warriors. Thanks to the battle raging in the other end of the basilica, it was relatively easy for everyone but Katya to sneak over to the door. Mei Lynn and Roq combined (with some words of inspiration) to open the impressive lock. Beyond that door we were amazed to see an impressive ritual altar. There were four mages executing the ritual with a ring of altar boys between then channeling the power of the Shroud of Turin at the center of it all. We all slipped in quickly (Katya not so gracefully at air speed 1 due to multiple grievous wounds) with the plan to disrupt the ritual and escape quickly before the Nazis could reach the chamber. For we had seen the Nazis were winning the battle. Worse yet, Fritz and his elite 'super elite nazi bullshit' squad had arrived and were marching methodically towards us. We knew we only had limited time before shit would hit the fan and the grievous wounds would rain down on us in glorious abundance. It was then that Katya, perhaps hardened by her recent experiences or by memories of Alflie‘s similar dilemma, made the difficult decision to disrupt the ritual by severing it's conduit of power. Mei Lynn had determined that the Altar boys were somehow channelling vast amounts of energy from the Shroud into the ritual. With reluctance, and tears, she shut her eyes and opened fire on the ring of Altar boys with a salvo of Ice Storms. At least the end was quick, if a little chilly, for those poor souls. As soon as the conduit was disrupted the ritual began to surge. It was being barely held in check by the Vatican mages. We then turned out attention to them and began taking them out. They were protected by force fields which gave us a bit of trouble but we ultimately managed to take out two of them which was enough to unleash the full uncontrolled power of the ritual and disrupt it entirely. Mei lynn also used her telekinetics to pull the Shroud out of the ritual further destabilizing it. In a series of stunning blasts the ritual power swept over us. Kat and Roq were unable to escape the AOE so were stunned into repeated waves of pure magical damage. Luckily, Mei Lynn's phase powers and Eva's "totally not broken AC build" were able to resist the AOE long enough to pull their beleaguered comrades out of the AOE. It was then that the Herald appeared and our hope died. But we quickly noticed that it was laying comatose! We hastily portaled over to it and began chopping away. It was weakened by our disruption of the ritual so we made short work of it. It was at this time that Fritz charged into the room just in time to see everything go to hell. HIs hopes of summoning the herald for his boss back in Berlin were shattered. He screamed in frustration and we taunted him for it (from the safety of a nearby portal). With one final massive eldritch blast of power the ritual was complete. The power was all funneled away by the Vatican mystic refocusers. We figured that a neighbourhood in Berlin or elsewhere in the world was probably worse for it but at least we were still standing. As we portaled away using Mei Lynn's "nothing's going to stop me" arch magic we called it for the night. That's where we left things, as the Arbiter said, with 'a few loose ends to clean up'. Rewards The opportunity to contemplate exactly when an altar boy's soul leaves the body. 11 Generic 1 Combat 1 DM Carryover Benny each Katya 3 Random Points and 1 Benny Category:Soviet